


Fireworks

by phosphenical



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Defining Moments, F/F, Lena's Mother, Romance, Sweet, introspective
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-18
Updated: 2019-03-18
Packaged: 2019-11-23 22:40:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18157961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phosphenical/pseuds/phosphenical
Summary: It's okay if you only ever save one person. It's okay if that one person is you.





	Fireworks

**Author's Note:**

> long time no see overwatch ao3. this was written from Blink! A Tracer Fanzine! i got the go-ahead to post it and i'm really proud of this sweet little fic. i hope you enjoy!

She was bouncing on the heels of her feet, an uncontainable storm of energy and grass-stained knees. “Hurry,” she groaned, small hands grabbing for the ends of her mother’s shirt, tugging and pulling. “Mum! We can’t miss it!”

 

With a softer chuckle and even softer motions she batted the child’s hands away. “Hush and have patience, I’m almost ready to leave.” She glanced just for a moment at her daughter’s pouting face, forcing her to hold still long enough to rub the sun lotion onto exposed shoulders and freckle-kissed cheeks. “There.”

 

Lena cheered, throwing her arms in the air. “Let’s go, let’s go! We’re gonna see the planes!” She hardly allowed her mother the time to lock the door behind them before she raced down the sidewalk with wind tousled shoulder-length brown locks.

 

“Slow down,” her mother laughed behind her, already knowing her child was uncontainable. “You’re going to trip!” And of course she didn’t, because Lena had told her that she was the fastest person in her class and could easily jump higher than any of the boys.

 

“Not-uh!” Despite her protests her sneakers hit the pavement in a pattern more resembling a walk, allowing her mum to catch up with her in just a few long strides. She slipped her hand in the larger one, squeezing it. “Are they gonna be loud?”

 

“Not too loud.” She promised. There was not a person she was more fond of than her precious daughter. Lena hummed in response before she turned her blinding smile upwards.

 

“Tell me a story!” The child swung their arms back and forth like a swing. A moment of peaceful silence passed them by.

 

“Ah, your grandfather told me this one once. It’s more like a riddle though, can you solve it?” Her mother’s eyes glinted with a shine of light and it was never easier to see the Oxton family resemblance between them. Lena nodded so enthusiastically it was a wonder her neck didn’t strain. “In a hurricane, which is stronger? The reed or the oak?”

 

“The oak!” She chirped without a moment of hesitation. 

 

“If the oak stands too tall it’ll crack,” her mother softly corrected her. “The reed bends in the wind and thus never breaks.”

 

“Lame,” Lena muttered but her foul mood was quickly forgotten as they had finally arrived on the long stretch of lawn where others had already gathered, picnic blankets on the ground and children running around as they eagerly awaited the airshow.

 

She burst ahead just as the first airplane took off in the distance and there was never a moment that defined Lena Oxton’s life more. The sounds, the sights, and the feeling that she was meant to be in the sky shaped her soul. There were certain moments in her life where she would feel pride, childish joy, but this was an instinct that overrode any of that. This was a poetic beginning and there was nothing she would trade this for.

 

She was silent, her mouth hanging open, her arm outstretched toward the planes becoming far off blobs on the skyline. She wanted to chase after them. She would.

 

“Mum,” her tone was more solemn than any child’s had a right to be. “That’s going to be me.” That was going to be  _ me.  _ Lena Oxton would have signed a pact with the devil in that moment if only he had given her a pen.

 

Her mother stared at her as though she was just now seeing her daughter for the first time and took her hand. “Well then, Ms. Lena Oxton,” she smiled. “Maybe you were born to be a bird after all.”

 

* * *

 

 

And a pact with the devil it was as she floated in the timestream, her body being pulled in every which way as every part of her was an anachronistic dichotomy, a reminder that she was never going to belong anywhere except in the sky.

 

She choked back a sob. She had to be the reed, she thought to herself with a hint of delirium tugging the back of her mind, a poisonous tonic begging to parch her throat. The oak breaks, but she was already broken and she thought that maybe in every timeline she was in she kept leaving a little piece of herself behind. Soon there would be nothing left of Lena and she would be doomed to be a specter forever.

 

_ The reed,  _ Lena reminded herself, thinking of her late mother’s voice and the way she had always challenged her. The reed.

 

* * *

 

 

Above her, the sky erupted into a brilliant display of red and orange and the sound rattled her eardrums, shaking her down to the bone. Lena erupted into a grin, tightening her arm around the waist of Emily and pulling her closer. 

 

The fireworks looked almost dim in comparison to her brilliant hair. “Did you use my shampoo again?” The scent was familiar and Lena wanted to imprint it into her memory. Emily lightly dug her elbow in her girlfriend’s stomach in response to the teasing.

 

She leaned in very close to be heard over the cracking and brilliance of the fireworks. “What gave you that impression, cadet?” When she pulled back Lena saw the reflection of gunpowder in her eyes. She missed the feeling of her breath on her neck almost immediately.

 

“You’re a menace,” Lena quipped, moving forward to press her forehead against Emily’s. 

 

In the dark she could see a familiar glow of green and gold lights as Genji sat, finally at peace, with Zenyatta. Mei had tugged Hana off to the side to enthuse about the history of Lijiang Tower and the young gamer was ever the picture of an enraptured audience. Lena pulled back and swept her gaze, locking eyes with Dr. Ziegler who gave her a warm smile in response and turned her attention back to the sky, seemingly unknowing of the fact that Fareeha and Ana were stealthily coming up behind her.

 

Lena couldn’t help but wonder if right now she was bending or standing tall. A moment later she couldn’t find it in herself to care either way. “Are you going to save the world again?” Emily leaned her head against Lena’s shoulder, her attention turned back towards the fireworks show.

 

“Always,” Lena swore in a whisper, serious and resigned.

 

“It’s okay if you only save even one person,” and when warm hazel eyes locked with hers the rest of the world melted away. Her team, her family, were suddenly very far away and it was just her and Emily and the fireworks.

 

“I have to try anyway,” Lena’s smile was lopsided, perhaps hiding more than a little pain but the wrinkles around her eyes were optimistic. “Try not to get to too jealous, love.”

 

“It’s okay if that one person is just yourself.” Emily promised her, moving forward to capture her lips in a soft gesture that had Lena melting against her. If only the world had an ounce of her girlfriend’s love there would perhaps never be another war again.

 

“You,” she said when she finally pulled away from the kiss. “I don’t know what I did to deserve you.” And all at once all the pieces she left of herself behind in the timestream had come back together, not perfect and not even a little unshattered, but the scars did not ache as they used to.

 

She was whole, with a family and a purpose.

 

“Nothing at all.” Emily promised and moved forward to kiss her again in a poetic beginning and a poetic end all at once and Lena was no longer a child with her hand outstretched towards the skyline because she had everything she ever wanted all in one place because she loved and had always been, and always will, be loved.


End file.
